KIANO, Nigeria: Jihadists allied with the Islamic State militant group have seized a military base in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno after overnight clashes with the army, sources told AFP on Saturday. told.
Islamic State of West Africa (ISWP) machine-gun fighters attacked a base called Mart in Lake Chad on Friday night, two sources said. “The priority now is to recapture the base from the terrorists and the operation is ongoing,” a source said.
“We attacked ISWAP terrorists. They raided Marta’s base after heavy fighting.”
Another source said the army had suffered “losses” but it was not immediately clear how many people were killed or destroyed by the insurgents.
ISWAP, which split from Boko Haram in 2016, maintains camps on the islands of Chad – where Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad meet – and the area is known as a stronghold of the group.
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